== Ll 
43 
Quite recently I have carried out a long series of flaking 
experiments in the endeavour to verify, if possible, Mr. Lewis 
Abbott’s view with regard to the production of an érazd/ure, and 
as to its being such an inestimable hall-mark of man’s handiwork ; 
but, so far, my efforts in this respect have led me to a very 
different conclusion. 
In the first instance, my experiments have convinced me 
that, to produce a flake, the rebounding blow, which has been so 
harped upon, is not an absolute necessity. I have intentionally 
delivered blows at such angles as to render impossible a rebound 
or a re-striking of the flint with the hammer-stone, and, invari- 
ably, such a single blow has successfully detached a respectable 
flake ; and, what is of far more importance, many of the flakes 
so struck off by single blows have exhibited the characteristic 
éraillure. This, therefore, entirely negatives Mr. Lewis Abbott’s 
theoretical explanation as to its being due to the involuntary 
rebounding tap. Occasionally I have succeeded with a single 
blow in detaching a flake with two or more éraillures ; and, after 
careful consideration, to my mind, the most feasible explanation 
of their production lies in the uneven surface of the hammer- 
stone at the point of impact. At any rate, the existence of an 
éraillure on a flake cannot, in my opinion, be considered as 
characteristic of an intentionally delivered blow. I have instanced 
above the natural production of conchvidal fractures, and, as my 
experiments have shown an érai//ure can be and is often caused 
by a single blow, I see no reason why natural flakes should not: 
bear the same characteristic. 
Reverting once more to the subject of my paper, I will now 
direct your attention to the flint cores ‘These are merely blocks 
of flint, generally of small size, covered with the facets of 
artificially detached flakes. They represent the residuum of large 
flint boulders from which prehistoric man chipped flakes of 
convenient sizes to make into cutting and scraping instruments. 
These also occur in abundance, and were evidently cast aside as 
useless when no flakes of the desired shape and size could be 
struck from them. It has been suggested that some of the 
smaller cores were used as -sling-stones; but this is merely 
conjecture. As a rule they are not of any uniform size or shape, 
and the existence of shore pebbles with them points tu the 
inference that the latter would by preference have been used as 
sling-stones if, indeed, the sling were in use in this part of the 
country in prehistoric times. 
The flints which prehistoric man used as hammer-stones in 
flaking next claim our attention. These, too, are by no means 
uncommon, and are invariably turned up wherever other evidence 
of primitive man abounds. — They are, as you will observe in the 
examples exhibited, generally round flints—occasionally shore 
pebbles— which rarely exceed the size of one’s fist, and are more 
